From Telegraph to Stablecoins: Western Union's Digital Asset Strategy

In this episode of Stableminded, Zach sits down with Malcolm Clarke, VP of Digital Assets at Western Union, to explore how one of the world's oldest financial institutions is building its stablecoin infrastructure. Founded in 1851, Western Union moves over $100 billion in fiat annually across 400,000 retail endpoints in 150 countries. Now they're issuing their own stablecoin.

Malcolm breaks down why Western Union branded their stablecoin as a "payment token"(USDPT) instead of a stablecoin, and why that distinction matters for consumer adoption. He explains the three pillars of their digital asset strategy: issuing USDPT on Solana through Anchorage, building the Digital Asset Network that turns Western Union retail locations into crypto on and off ramps, and launching stable cards with Rain that let consumers hold USD-pegged tokens and spend in local currency.

The conversation covers institutional decision-making around blockchain selection, why Solana's privacy extensions matter for enterprises, and why Western Union chose to issue their own coin rather than use USDC or USDT. Malcolm's framework for stablecoin success comes down to two things: economics and distribution. Western Union has both.


Whether you're building stablecoin infrastructure, working on institutional crypto adoption, or interested in how legacy financial institutions are approaching digital assets and cross-border payments, this episode delivers insights from someone operating at the intersection of 174 years of payment history and the future of tokenized money movement.

Season 6 of Stableminded is supported by Rain. Rain helps financial teams build and manage stablecoin-powered card programs with a single API, enabling users to move, store, and spend stablecoins instantly and compliantly in over 150 countries.

Learn more at rain.xyz.

The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or legal advice.